1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus having an optimized driving mechanism and a method of driving the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As generally known in the art, an image forming apparatus refers to a printing machine, such as a photocopier, a printer or a facsimile machine, to output image data onto a printing medium such as a paper. The image forming apparatus includes a housing, a printer engine mounted within the housing to develop an image onto a paper, a variety of rollers mounted along a predetermined paper path within the housing, and a driving mechanism to drive the printer engine.
The driving mechanism includes a driving source and a power transfer unit to transfer power generated from the driving source to the printer engine and the variety of rollers.
In general, the number and type of a driving source or driving sources used for an image forming apparatus vary depending on the size of the image forming apparatus and the number of components of the apparatus. For example, a small-sized image forming apparatus can drive a printer engine and a plurality of rollers using a single driving source. Such a small apparatus can reduce the manufacturing cost by adopting a low-output motor. On the other hand, an image forming apparatus having a printer engine with a greater driving load and a relatively large number of rollers generally uses two or more motors having a high output.
It is a current trend that the number of components provided in an image forming apparatus is increasing to implement various functions, such as duplex-printing and color-printing, thereby resulting in an increase of the driving load of the image forming apparatus. Accordingly, studies are under progress to provide an optimized driving mechanism by disposing a plurality of motors, including a high-output motor with low control capability and a low-output motor with high control capability, in proper positions within an image forming apparatus.